I'm a big fan of Yamagami's nursery in Cupertino. They are on the pricey side but their nursery people are very helpful and they carry nice quality, and a good variety. Yamagamisnursery.com They are closed this week, will reopen on the 2nd of January. Also Roger Reynolds nursery up on the peninsula are good. www.rogerreynoldsnursery.com They might be a bit of a drive for you. And are you anywhere near Central wholesale nursery? Despite their name they do sell to the public. That's worth a look - when I was there in mid-summer they didn't have too much selection in fruit trees, but their inventory is always changing. They are a great place for natives, by the way. www.centralwholesalenursery.com

cuttings rock, once you master it, it's a breeze. and to whom said it takes years to produce has little experience with fig cuttings. I have had cuttings grow 5 ft in 1 year and be loaded with figs the next. most people kill cuttings by lack of humidity where they dry out or over watering and they rot. plants are cool but I'm not paying $50 for a common fig when I can get cuttings for 10 or $15 and have 6 or 7 plants in 2 months. I've never seen VDB cuttings sell for 50 or Panache for 60. I think you're talking about RDB and Jolly Tiger. unless we are talking 20 cuttings or something.

Ada, I would have faith in anything Sooner Plant Farm grows as long as their own info on their website indicates it is cold-hardy to zones 6 and 7. Even though Sooner Plant farm ships nationally, I believe they started out growing for the Oklahoma market and then branched out as word spread about the quality of their plants. I've never seen or heard one single complaint about their plants or their customer service and that is rare nowadays. Google and look for reviews and you'll see that they have only postitive ones, or at least they did the last time I checked on them. As for S.S.E., the yearbook is the best entertainment in town. Who needs movies or DVDs or TV shows or music when you can read endlessly about heirloom varieties. I don't graft and have no intention of learning. There's only so many hours in a day, and I am already overcommitted. The best source of knowledge I know with regards to grafting is Scott. Well, Randy probably grafts too, but I am not sure. If you really want to learn about grafting, post a request for grafting info on its own thread so people can see it in the subject box, and I am sure that any experienced grafters we have here will respond. I've toyed with the idea of grafting tomato plants onto Maxifort root stock to see if I get improved disease-resistance or more vigorous plants, but there again, it comes down to how many hours there are in a day (not enough of them). Dawn

I second the recommendation for Green Thumb in Canoga Park or West Hills and their other store, Green Arrow, in North HIlls. They carry better distributors such as Dave Wilson Nurseries trees but at about 50-60% of the cost for the same tree at Armstrong. They are also bigger, with more stock. I love these guys. Be careful when selecting deciduous fruit trees at ALL Socal nurseries. All nurseries will make trees available that really won't fruit here. In SoCal you require "VERY LOW CHILL" trees -- there are not enough chilly hours in the dormant season to make most trees fruit. So a "low chill" tree that requires 500 or 400 hours is still too high of a requirement. I'm in Northeast L.A where I get 80 to 300 hours of chill per year, so all of the trees that require more than 250 hours will seldom fruit -- only some years. Read those labels!